TUVALU
1985 85TH BIRTHDAY OF QUEEN ELIZABETH THE QUEEN MOTHER STAMP ISSUES

Information and Reference of What was Found in the Format Archive and Elsewhere

Varieties and Proofs

Would YOU store YOUR specialized 1985 85th Birthday of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother varieties this way?

Information on this series is changing as more information is being discovered. This page and associated pages will be updated as more information is made available.

The 1985 85th Birthday of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother stamps issued for Tuvalu are a beautiful set and very colorful.
The series was quite a production for the Format Security Printers with the numerous images portrayed on the individual stamps and souvenir sheets of the series. Numerous errors and varieties exist for this series thus making it quite a diverse and challenging project to complete.

There is no information on the actual quantities produced of varieties and such but we can pretty much assert that the practices of production for other series including the Leaders of the World Automobiles and Locomotives and the Royal Wedding series should coincide with this series as well. Due to the standard principles involved with production of stamps depicting royalty the practices would be the same for this series.

In my recovery of the Saint Lucia and Tuvalu side of the police evidence stock I also received a portion of the progressive color proofs for the souvenir sheets from all the countries involved in numerous series. With Saint Lucia a major portion. With the Tuvalu and Islands what remained was very small. I fear now that most has been lost or destroyed very probably by terrible storage conditions.
In the recovery some were found in packets which moisture had penetrated and basically destroyed them all. Some were still wet! As if stored in a cellar! Even moldy!

In the acquisitions of the Bileski estate I got several lots of panes of the missing color varieties, perforation varieties, watermark varieties and gum varieties. These being found in the printers archive. Even some of these were torn, wrinkled and damaged in ways from storage in the archive.
I therefore submit to you that apparently some varieties because of these conditions have now become very limited as to what the collector can obtain and thus have become increasingly of higher value. Try to find certain varieties of these on the market and you will find it nearly impossible to impossible to obtain!

On this page I will try to break down what was produced, estimated quantities and valuation of the material.
I will use 2 sections to do this. First being the single stamp issues and secondly the souvenir sheets.
With the souvenir sheets section I will be tallying up both for the one issued in 1985 and the restricted printing set issued in early 1986.

Let's get started!

SECTION 1

THE PERFORATED SINGLE STAMP VARIETIES


I will base the quantities produced on the standards used for other series mainly being the Leaders of the World Automobiles and Locomotives Series which obviously were of the same style as this series. Over and over again in the documentation recovered from the trials and directly from the printer the quantities produced for varieties is generally always the same.
Interestingly enough as I stated in the introduction page for this series the progressive color proof Presentation Folders were not allowed to be reprinted due to the reprint agreement excluding this from happening. Therefore in my opinion the progressives were only printed once.

For Tuvalu progressive color proof Presentation Folders were retained and several "errors"!

This is an image of the advertisement made in the Urch Harris Commonwealth Stamp Catalog made back in 1987-88 for the 1985 Tuvalu 85th Birthday Stamps and Souvenir Sheets and varieties.

More varieties have been found since this ad but it gives you an idea of what was available and pricing at the time.
I note that for Tuvalu mainland quite a few varieties were listed at the time in comparison with other countries and islands.

For the normal issue being a popular topic and highly collected the quantities produced for the normal issue was around 75,000 sets. I base this on quantities produced for LOW trains and cars for Tuvalu.

Pricing should run at the stated catalog values.

I have not seen any uncut press sheets of this issue.

NORMAL PERFORATED "SPECIMEN" OVERPRINTED STAMPS

Documentation and evidence show that:
Based on practices of the printer for other series 2,000 sets of specimen overprinted stamps were produced.
These are quite commonly sold on the market thus most of the sets must have been retained.

Pricing should run between $7-10.00 a set.

PERFORATED VARIETIES

GUTTER PAIRS

The gutter pairs exist both vertically and horizontally. There appear to be quite a few that exist. I have purchased several sets.
These can only be taken from uncut press sheets so whoever made them made a smart move when breaking the sheets. It is unknown how many exist.

Pricing should range $5-10.00 a set.

It is unknown at present if any intact uncut press sheets still exist.

The $1 Value Scott 314 with MISSING DENOMINATION ERROR

This is an interesting error that seems to be passed over by many dealers and collectors. I do not know if it is genuine or was made for collectors.
It appears that it only has occurrences on vertical gutter pairs showing it is not consistent on all stamps on the sheet as you can see by the imaged horizontal gutter pair above. I found this on several gutter pairs all being from the same position on the sheet thus I theorize that it is probably only happens only once on each press sheet making it quite rare!

Pricing should range $5-10.00 for an example unless it is found that they are in the extremely rare category.

It is unknown at present if any intact uncut press sheets with this error still exist.

The 30c Value Scott 312 MISSING BLUE COLOR ERROR

This is a definite made for collector error. Simply made by skipping adding the blue stage in the printing process. It is sold in various locations showing they were retained. Standard practices of the printer were to produce 3,000 sets of these errors. It appears the other three values of the set were destroyed and only this one value exists in this form. It is an interesting novelty.

Pricing should be no more than $5.00 for an example.

There are no other varieties of the single stamp issues to report at this time.

That basically sums up the perforated varieties.

THE IMPERFORATE VARIETY

Standard print orders and practices were for 5,000 imperforate sets. Another 3,000 would be produced for the progressive color proofs.
According to the Urch Harris ad the 30c and $1.00 values are all that exist in regards to availability. This may hold true because at present I cannot find availability of the other two values anywhere. Availability of even the two values listed is sparse.
Rushstamps does list all values as available on presentation cards at a steep price.

Pricing should run at $2-5.00 a pair.

Nothing available in the form of sheets.

PROGRESSIVE COLOR PROOFS

At present I could only find this set available on the market at (in my opinion) a ridiculous price of $450.00.
Standard practice was to print 3,000 sets of the progressives. This is evidence that at least the 75c value was saved. Probably the other values were too and are being held. With these one should use extreme caution in buying because evidence shows time and time again that certain dealers knowingly sell these at over inflated prices all the while having a large portion of the stock stored.

PRESENTATION FOLDERS

The presentation folders are limited to 250. The reprint agreement enforced this rule and it was followed.
All values exist as imaged.

Pricing for the presentation folders should run $25-35.00 each.
Pricing should be no more than $15.00 for any single value set of progressives unless it is proven that the majority of the stock has been destroyed. This at this time is nearly impossible to achieve due to certain dealers remaining in that shady status.

SECTION 2

THE SOUVENIR SHEETS

Following is the rundown of what is known to exist in regards to the souvenir sheets.

THE PERFORATED ORIGINAL SOUVENIR SHEET

Documentation and evidence shows that:
At present at least 5,000 copies of this issue were produced. Probably more.
This is based on the following evidence found in the St. Lucia holding.

1.) 3,000 copies have been found in the police evidence.

2.)These are for sale by numerous internet sellers and stamp dealers.

3.)One dealer of Format Material (mentioning no names) is selling bulk lots of 5 seeming to have many copies. This is a popular series collected by many collectors and thematic collectors thus demand is higher.

Because of these factors pricing for this souvenir sheet should run at average Scott listed pricing of $3-5.00.

VARIETIES OF THIS SOUVENIR SHEET

Documentation and evidence shows that:
At present based on practices of the printer at the time 2,000 imperforate souvenir sheets were made.
Another 1,500 were produced with the progressive color proofs.
Nothing is available on the market for this souvenir sheet except for an offering by Rushstamps for the proof in presentation folder.
The quantity that still exists is unknown.

THE JUMPED PERF VARIETY


This perforation error I have seen in various locations. It is many times apparently missed by dealers and collectors alike. Either the perforation machine was not adjusted correctly during part of the run or the pins actually were broken. Quantities that exist are unknown. I would call this a genuine error because not a lot are out there and the standard for produced errors was for shifted perforations.

Pricing should be $10-15.00 for the souvenir sheet as imaged.

THE RESTRICTED PRINTING SOUVENIR SHEETS

The perforated $2.00 Restricted Printing Souvenir Sheet
The perforated $3.00 Restricted Printing Souvenir Sheet
The restricted printing souvenir sheets were asserted to be around 2000 being printed by Robson Lowe. They are readily available at numerous locations on the internet. This shows that all were retained. I believe now that it was closer to the standard 5,000.

Accordingly pricing should be at $3-5.00 each unless evidence of a lower number being produced is found.

A NOTE The image below shows availability of the imperforate and specimen overprinted varieties for the restricted printing souvenir sheets.

THE RESTRICTED PRINTING IMPERFORATE SOUVENIR SHEETS



The limited numbers printed of the normal issue would make one believe that the imperforate varieties would fall under lower numbers.
I do not think this to be the case. Evidence is showing that standard practices were used for the varieties. Therefore I would estimate that at least 3,000 to 4,000 were produced. Sorry to say but this makes the imperforates valued at regular issued values. They are readily available on the market.

Accordingly pricing should be at $3-5.00 each unless evidence of an even lower number being produced is found.

THE RESTRICTED PRINTING SOUVENIR SHEETS WITH SPECIMEN OVERPRINT
Documentation and evidence show that:
At present based on practices of the printer at the time 1,000 perforated and 1,000 imperforate of each were made.
There does not appear to be an imperforate variety.
The Specimen overprinted sets are available (though not to often) in various locations and listed by Rushstamps.

Accordingly pricing should be at $10-15.00 a set.

THE PROGRESSIVE COLOR PROOFS OF THE SOUVENIR SHEET
Again I can find no sets of these available anywhere on the internet.
Some were sold in the final sale of the archive though so they do exist.

THE MISSING SILVER OR GOLD BORDER AND INSCRIPTIONS ERRORS


At this time I cannot find the $3.00 value available but suspect it will show soon. This "error" is found on both the values of the restricted printing souvenir sheets for Saint Lucia. Standard practices of the printer were to produce 3,000 sets of missing color errors. I believe this to also hold true for this type of error. It is sold quite commonly on the market showing they have been retained.
The reason I know? Because I have retained around 2,000 copies of the Saint Lucia variety via the police evidence. This is a made for collector error. It is an interesting novelty.
I have not seen any imperforate versions available.

Pricing should run at $5.00 each.

At this time there is no evidence that any other errors were made for this particular souvenir sheet.

This basically sums up the stamp varieties for the Tuvalu 1985 85th Birthday of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother Omnibus series. As new information and evidence is found it will be added to this page.

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